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For Damen Schelde Marine Services, 2023 was a very good year; one that could easily be in the top three of all time, according to Managing Director Arnold Suykerbuyk (pictured above). “We did have to work a bit harder for it last year, but we had a lot of highlights.” The absolute highlight was the multi-year contract with French power company EDF to supply parts to a power plant on the island of Corsica, but there were more commercial highlights, such as the pit-stop contract with Norwegian tanker operator Odfjell.
Another positive result came from online marketing and sales activities. “That’s where we got good leads from all kinds of sources last year. We just started working on a new website before the corona pandemic and have since put more time and attention into it,” Arnold explains. “2023 was a year when we could really reap the benefits of that hard work. Staying relevant and ahead of the competition is an art form. You have to constantly keep building your brand and we intend to keep doing that.”
One of the commercial highlights 0f 2023 was the pit-stop contract with Norwegian tanker operator Odfjell. Photo: Per-Christian Dettwiler
Gathering knowledge
DSMS has been employing Vocational Guided Learning (BBL) students from Vlissingen-based college Scalda for a number of years and that too is bearing fruit, Arnold says. “We took on four new students at the beginning of the school year and we now have a total of six. Three people from the BBL route have become permanent employees and are now studying for their college degrees in Logistics. One of them is going to complete that course in 2024 so we have been reasonably successful in training our people.”
The DSMS team attended two workshops at Scalda.
Speaking of training, 2023 was all about broadening knowledge and training for the entire DSMS team. They attended two practical workshops at Scalda for 2-stroke and 4-stroke marine diesel engines and received training on coatings for diesel engine fuel components. There was also a two-day workshop with marine engine expert Kees Kuiken. “There is a fuel transition taking place in the shipping industry and it is important to be familiar with all the new fuel options and their characteristics. There are diesel variations such as biodiesel and synthetic diesel, but also methanol, LNG, hydrogen, ammonia and more,” Arnold says.
He adds that the training sessions are important for DSMS to keep the team’s technical knowledge at a certain level. “We want our people to know not only what a particular component is, but also what its function is and where it operates in the ship or power plant.” But, Arnold admits, it is not the only reason for the training sessions: “As a company, we work a lot with numbers. We write about 15,000 tenders a year, of which about 5,000 are converted into orders. We are very busy and we work very efficiently, but we don’t want our people to just sit at their computers. We want to add value and knowledge so that the work remains interesting. And it’s also a form of team building.”
During the Damen Maritime Ventures Days, Arnold held a presentation in the DSMS warehouse.
Damen Maritime Ventures Days
In addition to all that, DSMS organised the Damen Maritime Ventures Days in Vlissingen late last year. During this annual event, DMV representatives from all over the world come together to brainstorm, network and share knowledge. “It was a great event for DSMS to organise,” Arnold says. “We are a modest company compared to the might of Damen Naval and Damen Yachting and fairly small in terms of turnover, but we are of good standing and within Ventures we are one of the well-performing companies.”
"Staying relevant and ahead of the competition is an art form. You have to constantly keep building your brand and we intend to keep doing that.” Arnold Suykerbuyk
The two-day meeting took place partly at Damen Naval’s monumental headquarters with presentations from Damen Naval Director Corporate Strategy & Innovation Richard Keulen, Deloitte, and by professional speaker and Michiel de Ruyter descendant Frits de Ruyter de Wildt. Arnold: “He gave a very interesting lecture on the Golden Age and drew striking parallels with today. It was very interesting. On the second day, we had a presentation at our office and a tour of Damen Yachting. It was a fun couple of days.”
Looking ahead to 2024
For the year ahead, Arnold expects highlights, challenges, and innovation. DSMS is collaborating with Scalda’s Technum and Sensing360, a start-up in which Damen Maritime Ventures is participating. “We are exploring whether we can develop sensors for ship engines that give early warning of whether something is wrong, whether there is wear-and-tear, or if maintenance is needed. That is very interesting and would be a nice development in marine engine maintenance and repair.”
DSMS works closely with Scalda's Technum for both innovation and training of the DSMS team.
The coming year will also be a busy exhibition year, as for DSMS, the most important exhibitions take place once every two years. “We will be at the trade fairs in Singapore, Athens and Hamburg and we are already busy preparing. We expect to see great results.”
Furthermore, Arnold hopes the EDF contract for Corsica will yield some work. “We also hope for growth in our service business. We have been preparing our field service team with commercial training over the past few years and we now have a strong team that has shown itself well in the world. We expect them to bring in a lot of work next year.”
There are also plenty of challenges for the year ahead, Arnold acknowledges. “Shipping is in the news almost every day. Competition is not diminishing and the problems in the world are affecting logistics. We have to be creative by shipping stock from other areas and via other routes, or transporting by train or plane. But that in turn makes it more expensive. We still benefit from having such a large inventory, which allows us to deliver quickly. That is a big advantage for us, and it has resulted in us renting part of the old Exotech warehouse next door to accommodate the extra stock. I expect 2024 to be an exciting, but also a good year.”